1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for recording and reproducing images, and it particularly relates to a technique which supports the search of a desired scene while viewing moving images.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method of recording moving images used increasingly in recent years is one using such recording medium as DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) or hard disk magnetic recording medium (hereinafter referred to simply as “hard disk” also), which facilitates random access to recorded data. Helped by the growing capacity of hard disks and the lowered price thereof, hard disk recorders, which are image recording/reproducing apparatus using hard disks, are now commercially available on the market. There are even cases where a hard disk recorder is built into a television receiver.
Such hard disk recorders, when using a hard disk with a recording capacity of about 80 GB, which can be obtained with relative ease today, can perform about 30 hours of recording with image quality equivalent to a common VTR. They can even accomplish close to 100 hours of recording if priority is given to the length of recording over image quality.
For an image recording/reproducing apparatus using a recording medium that facilitates random access to recorded data as mentioned above, there is a method using thumbnail images as a technology by which to search for a desired scene among the recorded moving images. In this technique, still images are selected in advance from moving images, and are reduced to a predetermined size so as to be displayed in the form of indexes. Even if the desired scene is searched by employing this scheme, it often takes much time until the desired scene are finally searched. Moreover, in order to search the desired scene it is necessary to interrupt once the reproduction of the moving images and then call an index display screen.